Called Social and the Customer: The Rise of a single Class?, it highlights the fact that companies, including hotels, can no longer pigeon hole people, and that due to social media, everyone now has a powerful voice. The author, Todd Wilms states: “In the absence of any other data, you have to default to treat everyone as a VIP”, at the risk of sounding smug, this has been our service mantra, even before we opened. I knew that in today’s competitive markets, spending £30 million on refurbishment was not enough – what was required was a team of people with one mission in mind, to make every guest feel special. St. Ermin’s Hotel’s strapline is distinctly individual, which amongst many other aspects describes how we believe all our guests should be treated.

Todd quite rightly says that nowadays “Every customer now has a voice, capable of impacting your brand”, so to not offer each and everyone of them impeccable service is foolhardy, and this includes responding to any complaints and criticisms. In fact one of my regular tasks is replying to guests’ comments on TripAdvisor, both good and bad, as I believe that good customer service should carry on even after they have left the hotel. Maybe this is one of the reasons why St. Ermin’s is ranked at 26 out of 1069 in London on TripAdvisor.

My main aim at St. Ermin’s is to ensure that a single traveler staying in one of our cheaper rooms is treated exactly the same as the couple staying in one our suites, not just because they could write a blog or a tweet, but also because fundamentally they deserve it.